A new Bradford-based high tech vehicle tracking com-pany is looking to recruit three sales staff as it targets a £3.5m turnover in its first trading year.

Satmo Vehicle Manage-ment Solutions, the third business founded by Gary Thompson, began trading in April and has so far achieved sales of more than £80,000. More orders are in the pipeline following trials of its intelligent telematics tracking system.

Gary, 39, of Eccleshill, has invested more than £500,000 of his own money into developing the product. His idea for a high-tech tracking system came about after he twice put the wrong type of fuel in his car.

Gary said: “It struck me that vehicles should have some form of device that could detect the wrong fuel and warn the driver to prevent damage to the engine. That started a process that has led to a modular tracking system “We hold a global patent on some of our products. and I’m confident we will succeed. Sales have been doubled every month so far and we’re currently looking at around 25 orders a week, including from large companies.”

Satmo is based at the Gumption Centre, the business incubation and virtual office space in Glydegate, but is working with Bradford Council to find new offices from which to expand. Its base, including software development, will remain here whilst the products are manufactured in Holland.

One of the Satmo applications is the first fully-portable refrigerated unit with multiple temperature sensors for the food industry.

It is also testing a taxi fleet system to monitor passengers and improve driver security as well as monitoring driving standards and providing terminals for credit, debit or taxi cards.